A company called FreedomPop has launched a free wireless data plan in major metropolitan areas around the United States. The company is giving out Wi-Fi hotspots, and USB dongles to tens of thousands of users reports The Verge. During the public beta, users will be able to use 500 MB of free wireless data per month in the covered areas.

If you live in an area where Clearwire offers WiMAX connectivity, you should be able to access the FreedomPop beta network. The dongles and hotspots being given out aren't free, however. Users pay $49.99 for a USB dongle or $89.99 for a wireless hotspot; that price is fully refundable (within the first 30 days) according to the company and is considered a deposit. If 500MB/month is not enough for you, you can get 2GB/month for $17.99 or 4GB/month for $28.99.

The company is also planning to launch sleeves that will work with the iPhone and iPod Touch at the same $99 rate in the next few weeks.

FreedomPop plans to switchover to Sprint's LTE network next year. Customers that have already purchased a WiMAX-based connection device can return them to FreedomPop for credit towards an LTE-based device.

The service marks one of the first “freemium” mobile broadband offerings and joins the likes of Netzero’s 200MB/month service. FreedomPop hopes that enough users will opt to pay for larger data allotments helping to subsidize the free offering.

Users of the network can get additional free access with awards of 10 MB per month for recruiting new users for the network. Users will also be given small chunks of data for doing things such as browsing a website, earning 3 MB of data, or 1.2 GB of free access for things such as subscribing to LoJack laptop protection software.

The service requires no contracts, and has no activation or cancellation fees.

"This is about the Internet. Everything on the Internet is encrypted. This is not a BlackBerry-only issue. If they can't deal with the Internet, they should shut it off." -- RIM co-CEO Michael Lazaridis